Blog purpose

This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA. The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore, The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them. Comments not conforming to BLOG rules are deleted. Blog author serves as a moderator. For new topics or suggestions, email jlscoob5@gmail.com

Blog rules

  • Stay on topic.
  • No profanity, threatening language, pornography.
  • NO NAME CALLING.
  • No political debate.
  • Posts and comments are posted several times a day.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Monday, November 23, 2009

Is salary management worth the effort?

Anonymously contributed:

Why does LLNL senior management bother with the appraisal and salary management charade when the management process costs much more than the managed funds dispensed?

How much effort will a 200 really put in for the wonderful 1% average reward, when medical and tax increases take most? Why try indeed.

Consider that the full LLNS fee annually exceeds by four times the amount of the whole professional annual salary increase package. Nice, huh?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Lab isn't the only one in Livermore facing hard times...

Anonymous said...


Big cuts in store for Livermore
By Jeanine Benca
Contra Costa Times
11/20/2009

LIVERMORE — Street signs will be repainted less often, police response to non-emergencies will be slower and library hours will be fewer under a staggering proposal to scale back city services.

Across-the-board reductions are needed to fill an unanticipated $3.2 million deficit caused by statewide sales tax dips and other factors, Livermore officials said. The city council will discuss the city manager's financial update and recommended cuts Monday.

"We've been able to weather the storm for quite some time without layoffs or service reductions," said assistant city manager Troy Brown. "Unfortunately, we're to the point now where we're having to have difficult discussions."

The recession has already taken a toll on city coffers.

Since 2008, Livermore has lost some $8.7 million in sales tax, property tax and other revenues. Until now, creative accounting measures, employee salary and benefit concessions, voluntary buyouts and slashes to "non-essentials" have been sufficient to stave off deeper cuts, Brown said.

But recent, statewide developments are forcing city leaders to consider reductions that would affect city workers and community members.

California sales and use tax receipts for the 2009/10 fiscal year are expected to be about 6 percent lower than in 2008/09, resulting in a $795,000 loss to the city. Also, the state plans to "recapture" about $2.4 million in overestimated, 2008-09 sales tax reimbursements, according to staff reports.

Livermore isn't the only city affected — it is estimated state payments this year will be nearly 28 percent lower than originally anticipated for all California cities.

To cope with the budgetary blow, Livermore is proposing to cut 11.5 full-time positions from its 482-employee staff. If approved, nearly every department will be affected, including public works, maintenance, community development, traffic and public safety.

A big blow could be in store for non-emergency police services. While the response time to "first priority" police calls won't change, the time to respond to document requests, animal control and other second- and third-priority calls are likely. Changes could result in fewer property crimes being investigated, reductions to the gang unit and increased processing times, according to staff reports.

Another cut would cut Rincon and Springtown library branch hours from 53 to 23 hours, leaving them open just three days a week. Main library hours would remain the same.

That potential change drew criticism from Springtown resident Linda Avila.

"I don't know what it will take to make their budget, but I think there's other ways," she said. "We need our libraries. The libraries keep these kids off the street, give them a place to go to use the computer —and it's a safe place."

Other recommendations include reducing street sign, street light and landscape maintenance, consolidating staff in human resources, city manager and city clerk offices, and scaling back community development and engineering services.

The council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday at the Council Chambers, 3575 Pacific Avenue, Livermore.

November 20, 2009 8:18 PM

Friday, November 20, 2009

LANL people seem happy

According to employee survey.... or are they?
Post from LANL Blog

Why is the US disarming and dismantling?

Anonymous said...


Russia continues to modernize its nuclear triad

November 19, 2009 2:57 AM

Big news from LLNL

Anonymous said...

IBM uses Blue Gene supercomputer to model neural behavior of a cat brain.

Of all the things DOE could do with that class of computer, you would think that someone would come up with a better project than that.

November 18, 2009 7:16 PM

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Positive Comment Challenge

Anonymously contributed:

This blog is overwhelmed by negative comments. While any of us could certainly join in on everything from our indefensible overhead rates to stifling computer security craziness, it gets old after months and months and months! So if you need to rant, go do it in some other post. Here I challenge actual LLNL employees to say something positive about the place we all work.

I'll start: I actually enjoy my work at LLNL. Yes, you heard correctly, I get to work a great group of scientists, recognized in our field, perform cutting-edge research, publish papers, attend professional society meetings, and have access to some great equipment.

Especially compared with what some of my colleagues are going through at the Universities (cuts and furloughs) the lab remains a great place to do science.

How Desperate is LLNS?

The word on the street is the LLNS is desperate to build morale. I don't think this is just a rumor either. Many departments have created "blogs" to find out what employees are thinking and now, there is the employee blog. Sorry, no need to provide a link, because you have to be on-site to get to it! No sense posting to it, because my guess is it's overly censored (you do have to sign in with your OUN to reply to any of the posts). I do see that the administrator of the LLNS blog is actually a poster on this blog - see, management is indeed reading this blog!

I heard that several departments had some type of a morale committee, but that they were disbanded when the committee members had no morale themselves. I do like the posting here where someone said that working at LLNL gave them a sense of pride. Our current management has deflated almost all of the pride any of us ever had. Me, I'm just plain emotionally drained. The article in the news where it says that the local labs are hiring 500 New Employees is just too funny. note that most are at LBL and the rest are Post Docs. Post Docs are among the hardest working and make about half of what their peers make doing the same job.I'm not quite to the point that I say they win, but I'm close.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Gross miscalculation?

Bruzer said:

Did Anyone else read in the "Daily Clips" Monday, that between Sandia & LLNL they will be hiring 500 employees due to the expected number of employees that will be naturally retiring?
I think what really is going on is they just now figured out they laid off too many outstanding employees and won't have the correct talent available come 2012!!!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

what is wrong with Hewitt?

Anonymously contributed:

I'm a retiree- took the buyout, such as it was, because I figured that even tho LANS people got twice as much, that was the best we could expect, and I didn't want to "go down with the ship" that used to be called LLNL.

I received a letter dated 11/6/09 from LLNS signed by Art Wong that states the letter sent by Hewitt "incorrectly stated that .. enrollment ends on Nov 6, 2009." He states it is open until 11/20/09.

Q. The letter does not give costs, does anyone know how to get those?

There was an article in the local paper that said the same thing, and the reporter asked Hewitt about the error.
Hewitt's response sounded like: Well, it was correct for other programs we handle, and NO they were not going to correct their error.

Maybe LLNS should contract with someone to manage our health care who cares about doing a good job? Or restore the good in-house HR dept. that once did this?

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Is LLNL positioned for success?

This post is a comment under the post "How long will he last?". I am moving it here in the hopes that ULM (or their intelligence) see it and are reminded of the problem.

I thought it sums up the fundamental problem of LLNL

--- scooby --


You have raised a very significant question regarding the success of outside managers.

In my 30 years at the Lab, many of which were spent in WFO programs, I am not sure that I have seen any. On the other hand, I have seen numerous failures.

The underlying problem is that LLNL is not structured for WFO success. Part of the problem is internal, part is due to the DOE bureaucracy. The Lab is basically a weapons design lab. It is the best in the world in that mission, but that mission is dying.

If the Lab is ever to be successful in the WFO arena, we need to overhaul DOE or move the Lab out of that management. We cannot devote hundreds of millions of dollars to nonsense bureaucracy--IWSs, AB, etc. When we had a real enemy, political pressures keep the DOE bureaucrats at bay. Barring a true national emergency, we will never again be able to gain our previous status.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Where is the money going?

Anonymously contributed:

Here is what Miller and Liedle make

Liedle: $867356.00

Miller $441891.00

go to the RECOVERY.gov to see for your self.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Where is the satellite?

Anonymously contributed:

The lab is showing no favoritism at all.

The broadcast of Michelle Obama's visit to the Department of Energy headquarters today (Nov. 5) will not be aired on Lab TV. DOE could not locate an accessible satellite to carry the broadcast.

WFC?

How long will he last?

Anonymously contributed:

I wonder how long he will last....


Penrose Albright, former Homeland Security Secretary, named Global Security leader at Lawrence Livermore
By Physics Today on November 5, 2009

LIVERMORE, Ca — Penrose. C. "Parney" Albright, former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, has been named the Principal Associate Director of Global Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Albright will join the Lab on Nov. 30, Director George Miller announced.

The Global Security Principal Directorate applies multi-disciplinary science and technology to anticipate, innovate and deliver responsive solutions to complex global security needs, from energy and environmental security to domestic security and nonproliferation.

"Parney is extremely well qualified to assume responsibility for Global Security, an area of critical importance to our Laboratory as well as the country," Miller said. "He is internationally recognized for his homeland and national security acumen."

Albright has more than 20 years of experience in national security, holding positions in the federal government, federally funded research and development centers and the private sector. His responsibilities have ranged from research and development to conducting studies and analyses and senior leadership. He has worked in programs to counter terrorism, protect against weapons of mass destruction, protect U.S. borders, and perform systems analysis of space systems and ballistic and cruise missile defense systems.

Prior to joining the Lab Albright was at Civitas Group, a homeland security consulting group in Washington, DC. He served as an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Homeland Security; Assistant Director in the Office of Science and Technology Policy; Senior Director in the Office of Homeland Security in the White House, and Program Manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Throughout his career he has served in a number of capacities, from a scientist designing and executing an experiment carried out by the crew of the space shuttle to developer and manager of programs associated with special operations, intelligence collection, molecular biology, and maritime operations; and as the leader of the team that created the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, developing its enabling legislation, organizational construct, multi-year strategic planning guidance, and ultimately overseeing budget execution.

Albright has extensive experience with interagency and congressional interactions, and was a frequent spokesperson for both the White House and DHS to the press on issues associated with science, technology, and weapons of mass destruction.

Albright has a bachelor's degree in physics and applied mathematics from George Washington University, and a master's and PhD in physics from the University of Maryland.

"With his educational background and broad experience, Parney has demonstrated wide-ranging managerial and scientific capabilities and knowledge that will be essential in effectively managing the wide range of functional areas in Global Security," Miller said. "I have confidence that he will enable the Global Security organization to continue to apply multi-disciplinary science and technology to anticipate, innovate and deliver responsive solutions to complex global security needs."

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory that develops science and engineering technology and provides innovative solutions to our nation's most important challenges. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Stay informed!

Anonymously contributed:

A while back, I posted about the swine flu, and asked people to do some research on the subject. Blogmaster, thanks for posting it. I hope someone paid attention. Most didn't.
For those of you who saw the movie 'V', it is now time for us to sit down and have a little chat. Since I last posted, your bill of rights has been taken away, the Emergency declaration and level 6 has trumped it. Meanwhile, 500,000 are under mandatory vaccine attack in NY, and many people are leaving the state as the court battles go on. In Mass, impeachment for the governor is underway, for treason.

The story is much bigger than just s seasonal shot.

Just stay informed, don't go quietly into the night!

links:
youtube:
"Finland's Health Minister Blasts Swine Flu BS"

-Ukraine under bio attack.

-swine vaccine hidden in seasonal flu shot.

tons more, just get away from the mainstream media and poke around!

Posts you viewed tbe most last 30 days